New England RadioWatch: November 7, 1996

Big Doings in Maine

by Scott Fybush

• Now that the elections are over, your NERW finally has a few minutes to spin the radio dials, and here's what's doing out there...

• Up in Portland, Maine, "The Ocean 97.9" is a thing of the past. Fuller-Jeffrey's hot AC WCSO began moving towards a CHR format at the start of the month. It's now going by "The New Q 97-dot-9," and new calls are expected any day now. This fills a major format gap in Portland, where until now the only CHR has been little WRED (95.9) from Saco.

• The 103.7 signal from Mount Washington is back on the air, but it's not WZPK anymore. As predicted, the Berlin, NH-licensed outlet is now simulcasting country WOKQ (97.5) from Dover, NH, using the "WPKQ" calls. The top-hour ID on WOKQ/WPKQ now mentions both stations, as well as WOKQ's 97.9 translator in Manchester, NH.

• NERW sends its best wishes to Larry Estepa, an anchor at WLNE-TV (Channel 6), New Bedford/Providence. After leaving the station last Friday night following the 11pm newscast, Estepa crashed head-on into a tree a few blocks from his Barrington, R.I. home. Estepa suffered a concussion from which he's recovering -- but in treating him, doctors discovered he's suffering from cancer. Estepa says he might never have gotten treated in time if he hadn't found out that way. By the way, Estepa was charged with driving to endanger, something police say is routine in such cases. There's no evidence Estepa was intoxicated.

• And that'll close it for today; later in the week, we'll finish the Maine station history, and talk about NERW's visit to New York's Hudson Valley.